In recent issues of Schools, Australia (ABS cat. no. 4221.0), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has acknowledged shortcomings in the headline measure of student retention in post-compulsory secondary education - apparent retention rates. The identified quality issues raise concerns about the ability of the statistics to accurately measure grade progression or retention in secondary schools, and hence their continued relevance for policy analysis.
In this paper, we seek to promote the wider and better-informed use of the significant repository of education statistics provided by the annual National Schools Statistics Collection. We propose an expansion of the descriptive and analytical statistics published in Schools, Australia - including more accurate measures of retention and grade progression - and advocate a more prominent stance on advising upon the appropriate usage of the published statistics.

Unless otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia Licence together with any terms, conditions and exclusions as set out in the website Copyright notice. For permission to do anything beyond the scope of this licence and copyright terms contact us.